A group of local health care providers are hoping their recent humanitarian mission to Haiti will lead to more long-term medical solutions in the poverty stricken country.

In September, a team of seven Day Kimball Hospital employees, along with six other people, spent the better part of a week treating more than a thousand Haitians for a variety of chronic and acute illnesses, a journey members described as alternately fulfilling and frustrating.

The trip was spearheaded by Ralph Miro, the hospital’s director of nursing and medical services, as part of a master’s degree thesis, which required him to plan and execute a group project. Miro decided to head to the Haitian town of Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite, about three hours north of the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince. Joining him was Dr. Douglas Waite, the hospital’s vice-president for medical affairs and quality; Kristine Bastura, coordinator of the emergency department; and Guinxe Gabriel, a native Haitian who immigrated to the United States in 1981 and serves as the hospital’s pharmacy director.

“This was the first time I’d been back since I’d left,” Gabriel said. “The journey was an emotional one — full of nostalgia.”

The group, with the help of the Northeast Hope for Haiti organization, set up base in a residence across the street from Gabriel’s parents’ home and began daily excursions to surrounding villages, hauling with them trucks full of medicine and other supplies.

The region has one hospital, staffed by two doctors and open five days a week, which serves roughly 35 nearby towns, Gabriel said.

“For four days, we’d travel to these villages, seeing anywhere from 300 to 500 people each day,” Waite said. “We’d set up individual treatment stations — a table and a couple of chairs — and begin seeing patients.”

For up to ten hours each day, residents — many of whom lined up hours before — were assessed, diagnosed and given medicine for a wide range of illnesses. The sheer number of patients forced some members of the group to move out their comfort zones.

Bastura, who did not have any previous clinical experience, was drafted to dispense medicine while Gabriel worked as the group’s interpreter.

“There were a lot of (gastrointestinal) cases, along with sexually transmitted diseases, scabies and a lot of eye problems,” Bastura said. “And a lot of hunger.”

The bulk of the group’s pharmaceutical kit, purchased with money donated by hospital employees, was soon depleted, given to treat cases of intestinal worms, malaria, end-stage AIDS and skin infections.

“That’s why we want to go back more frequently and with more staff and supplies to go to more sites,” Waite said. “Most of what we did involved short-term fixes, though that type of treatment can have long-term benefits. For example, we want next time to bring ten times the amount of vitamins we first brought.”

Page 2 of 2 - Miro said the team was overwhelmed by the generosity of the Haitian people.

“The people we met were friendly, open and very gracious to us,” he said. “That’s why we want to go back more frequently. One time is just a drop in the bucket.”